{"id":72880,"date":"2025-12-29T17:25:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T17:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/72880\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T17:25:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T17:25:07","slug":"pennsylvania-couple-lived-with-relatives-dead-body-to-collect-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/72880\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Couple Lived With Relative’s Dead Body to Collect Benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"

A plea deal has been accepted in the case of a Pennsylvania couple who\u2019ve been arrested for allegedly continuing to live with a relative\u2019s dead body for several months in order to keep receiving his monthly Social Security checks.<\/p>\n

Debbie Bebout, 64, and her husband, James Edmond Bebout, 69, allegedly did not report the death of his 64-year-old brother, Michael, when it happened around Labor Day in 2024. In fact, Michael\u2019s death wouldn\u2019t be reported to police until January 16, 2025, when James summoned police to the two-bedroom home the three of them shared.<\/p>\n

Police said that Michael\u2019s skeletal remains were found in his bed, where they believe he died from natural causes. According to police, the body was allegedly left there for at least four months. Officers also said the entire home was unlivable, with a heavy hoarding situation and dog feces covering all over the floors. The odor inside the home, which was actually owned by Michael, was said to be \u201coverwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n

James and Debbie are charged with theft by unlawful taking and criminal conspiracy, both felonies, and abuse of a corpse, a misdemeanor, according to court documents obtained by Us Weekly. Debbie and James\u2019 arrests occurred December 11, 2025, with their alleged crimes listed as occurring on the day Michael\u2019s remains were actually found.<\/p>\n

Now, local reports claim<\/a> that Debbie has agreed to plead guilty to a single count of theft during a hearing set for Tuesday, December 30. Under the terms of the deal, she will be sentenced to time served.<\/p>\n

James maintains that he did not know his brother had died and called 911 as soon as he found the remains. Pittsburgh\u2019s Action News 4 reported<\/a> James told police Debbie pretended to care for Michael even after his death and the couple cashed at least six Social Security checks worth $1,200 each for a total of more than $6,000.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Nicole
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\t\t\t
\n Related: 2 People Arrested After Allegedly Trying to Flush Newborn Down Toilet<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTwo people in Illinois, Nicole Pokrzywa and William Cosmen, have been arrested after they were accused of trying to flush an infant down a toilet. When they were unsuccessful at the task, the pair eventually buried the baby\u2019s body in a beer box. The Will County Sheriff\u2019s Office confirmed in a press release that Pokrzywa, [\u2026]\t\t<\/p>\n

He said he only found the body when he brought Michael breakfast that morning. The night before, Debbie was arrested on an unrelated bench warrant.<\/p>\n

Reports suggested James was offered a similar deal but said he did not commit a crime.<\/p>\n

Assistant District Attorney Robert West argued during a recent hearing James had to have known about the body, noting only a sheet separated Michael\u2019s bedroom from the living room, where the couple slept each night on couches.<\/p>\n

\u201cInaction is action when it comes to the desecration of a body,\u201d West said, according to the Herald-Standard out of Uniontown<\/a>. \u201cI believe that\u2019s what happened here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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James is set to stand trial in 2026 on one felony count of conspiracy to commit theft and a misdemeanor charge of abuse of a corpse.<\/p>\n

James is being held at the Washington County jail on $6,000 cash bond while he awaits his formal arraignment January 27, 2026.<\/p>\n

Debbie, who remains in jail on $25,000 bond, will likely testify against her husband at trial under the terms of the plea. She will also be expected to cover her own court costs and return the $6,000 she stole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A plea deal has been accepted in the case of a Pennsylvania couple who\u2019ve been arrested for allegedly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[139,28,30,29,9547],"class_list":["post-72880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-true-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}